A Guide to Cloud Migration Strategies to be Future-Proof in 2022

Cloud migration is transferring databases, applications, and other elements to a cloud server environment. This transferred database or applications can be accessed from anywhere via the internet. It is said that the "cloud is about how you do computing, not where we do computing."

There are multiple types of cloud migration, one of those standard models is moving the database and application from an on-premises server to the public cloud. Cloud migration can be performed from moving one cloud platform or service provider to another platform or service provider. For example, moving an application from AWS to Azure server, this process is named cloud-to-cloud migration. And the last type of cloud migration is moving off from the cloud server, where databases or applications exist from the cloud server, this is known as reverse cloud migration, or cloud exists.

Strategies in Cloud Migration

For better business continuity, businesses need to adopt the cloud to reap maximum benefits. The keynote to know is not all cloud services are the same. It is crucial to select suitable cloud services to tailor cloud adoption methods based on the requirements. Adopting the right strategy and platform will reduce migration risk and cost and give a better success rate.

Below are the six common adoption techniques for cloud migration.

Rehosting-Lift and Shift

This process involves the migration of on-premise elements like applications or databases into the cloud without performing any modification. As this strategy has bare minimal modifications, it is considered to be the fastest way of cloud migration starter among other strategies.

This approach can be adopted for low-impact workload when organizations' has budget limitations on their on-premise infrastructure and do not require any architectural changes. However, As the adoption is faster there will be challenges in modifying elements in the migration process and higher costs involved than any other strategy.

Once elements are migrated to the cloud and running up, it is easy to rework and modify according to the requirements.

Replatforming- Move and Improve

In this strategy, the on-premises elements are lifted and modified according to the requirements and then migrated to the cloud platform. However, the underlying architecture of the application will remain the same. This will help reduce the cost involved in cloud adoption, cloud licensing and improve the efficiency of the application.

This strategy is typically adopted when an organization’s business has less cloud requirement and does not want to modify the base architecture of the application.

Refactoring- Rip and Replace

In this strategy, the elements are entirely modified to fit the adopted cloud platform. As the whole application is modified and optimized according to the new cloud platform, better ROI, scalable options, and improved performance. Thus, these strategies are entirely future-proof.

Typically this strategy is selected by organizations that have customer-facing applications. Here, the applications are converted from platform as a service (Paas) to software as a service (Saas).

Replace- Repurchasing

In this strategy, the SaaS-based elements are migrated to the cloud platform, in which unfit elements are replaced by the new elements or purchased from a third-party vendor. It's quicker than a PaaS migration. This strategy has all challenges involved in re-creating architecture, UI/UX, and many.

Retire- Retiring

In this strategy, a few features of the system that are not in use or outdated are completely retired, and the remaining part of the application is migrated to the cloud. As elements are terminated instead of modified, this strategy is considered for quicker adoption.

Retain- Retaining

Some business applications are complex to rewrite, which are crucial for business continuity. Those applications are retained and migrated to the cloud platform. These applications can be modified according to requirements later part of the migration.

Conclusion

The right cloud adoption methodology enable companies to scale-up, opens door for innovation, improves backup, and help organizations be future-proof. This helps in achieving higher ROI and improves time to market.

Sun Technologies can help you adopt the right methodology for your cloud journey. Our key accelerators that includes IntelliSWAUT (Sun Tehnologies’ scriptless tool) and DevOps process enables organizations to achieve the desired business results with maximum value.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we helped our clients in their cloud journey and how we could help you achieve the same success!